Affirmative Action: Genre Analysis of Image and Article

Dante Perez
University of Texas at El Paso

Affirmative Action was originally a piece of legislature passed by Lyndon B

Johnsons administration in the 1960s that would help minorities to be integrated
into society. This policy essentially gave the needed opportunity for minorities to
achieve greater things and advance in society. This meant that a minority could not
only advance but had the opportunity to flourish. The policy at the time was an
achievement and a victory for civil rights, however the question remains Is it still
beneficial for minorities on the long run?. In this essay we have two genres, one a
political cartoon and the other is an article on The Atlantic, both topics explore or
touch base on the current issue of affirmative action in 21 st century USA .
The political cartoon is clearly a satirical image of college students, and the
image is drawn in a cartoonish manner, in which body parts are somewhat out of
proportion and give it a comic effect regardless of the message. This message is
primarily intended for the general audience, primarily because of the cartoon form,
which makes the image easy to read and does not use complicated words or,
vocabulary. Therefore most people will be able to understand the image and
hopefully the message. The illustrator uses this medium to pass a serious message,
while entertaining the reader.
As for the article, the article is not as reader-friendly as the image. The
magazine that publicized this article is The Atlantic, this magazine has been around
for quite some time and is a respectable source of news. However, it being the
Atlantic, this indicates that the reader is clearly a particular person, someone who is
more engaged in political issues and tries to do more research. The language in the
article is much more elevated and thus created for a reader that is much more
educated and engaged in politics and current events.

Both the article and the image succeed in addressing the issue, and inciting
discussion amongst readers. However these two images are clearly intended for two
types of people, the image was created for a much more general and broader
audience and the article was created for a much more politically engaged and
educated individual.
When the reader examines the image, it is not a hard image to interpret. If
the reader observes the characters involved in this image. There are a total of 6
people, first we have a daughter of Alumni, which means that one of her parents
attended the college. The second character we have a son of family that made a
large donation to the school, therefore despite his grades, this would guarantee his
admission. The third person is a soccer player, which comments on the schools
preference for somebody that will bring prestige to the school, perhaps he also got a
scholarship to the school entirely on the basis that he is a good soccer player. The
fourth individual is a student that was raised in a distant state. Now, the fifth person
is a minority (black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc.), by being a minority the
university will have a preference to admit him to the university. The final individual
in the picture, seems to be a rejected student however it seems he is being vocal
about it and he doesnt blame any of the other characters, he instead blames the
minority student. The image is trying to bring a sensitive issue out through humor.
The last person even looks a bit whinny and ridiculous. This image is intended to
talk about the people that are frustrated about affirmative action, yet at the same
time it does not push the envelope and make minorities to be evil or unwanted.
The article from the Atlantic called The Painful Truth About Affirmative
Action begins by acknowledging the roots and the purpose of affirmative action,

the article continues by bringing the reader into present day America. Essentially
the author is making a valid argument about a new threat to minorities and that is
Mismatching. Due to these racial quotas and these universities preference for
minorities, the university ignores the actual qualifications of the individual. By
allowing this practice of mismatching, the minority student is entered into a class
that he/she is probably not prepared to excel in, and can actually lead minority
students towards dropping out. After the author talks about this, she backs her
argument up with facts such as Black college freshmen are more likely to aspire to
science or engineering careers than are white freshmen, but mismatch causes
blacks to abandon these fields at . Another fact the author brings up in the article
is About half of black college students rank in the bottom 20 percent of their
classes (and the bottom 10 percent in law school). To be clear, these facts sound
mildly prejudiced, however the author does not seem to have a biased voice and
more a voice of concern for minorities. In the end though, the author feels that this
issue will not be spoken nor brought up in campuses due to racial tension and the
negative politics it brings. The universities in the end will choose the more political
path, however the author is urging minorities to take a look at themselves and to be
practical about what their abilities are. The author mentions in the article an
example The student who would flourish at, say, Wake Forest or the University of
Richmond, instead finds himself at Duke, where the professors are not teaching at a
pace designed for him -- they are teaching to the "middle" of the class, introducing
terms and concepts at a speed that is unnerving even to the best-prepared
student. So essentially the author is urging minorities to choose a university that
can teach them at their level.

One common element that these genres share is a theme and that is,
affirmative action in America. However one being an image and the other being an
article, they explain their messages in a different manner. The image explains a
controversial image through humor and exaggeration, however to the informed
mind, the image makes sense and even makes the reader chuckle. The purpose of
any political cartoon is to incorporate humor and a political current event or topic
and deliver that message through this medium. This message was created to sort of
softball in the issue that some people have with affirmative action. The most
important caption of this entire image is Its HIS Fault, if the reader notices, the
HIS part a much larger font than any other font on the image. This makes us focus
on the word and then we ask ourselves Whos fault is it?, and if we refer back to
the cartoon, the final character points at the minority character. The image uses
Logos, it is clearly provoking a discussion, amongst white readers and minority
readers, and if the image were not drawn in the manner it is drawn in then it could
be interpreted as being offensive, therefore using anger, disgust, and humor
(emotions) to make its argument.
The Essay is much different in the way it wants to present its arguments. The
essay uses facts, it uses a bit of opinion, however overall it resonates a tone of
concern to the universities, towards minorities and their overall success in higher
education. The essay uses Logos to make its arguments, since it uses a lot of
statistics and numbers and percentages to back up its argument such as About half
of black college students rank in the bottom 20 percent of their classes (and the
bottom 10 percent in law school). Also, the authors use Ethos in this essay because
the authors themselves are qualified to speak about this issue, both authors are
professors at universities, Mr. Richard Sander is a law and economics professor at

UCLA and studies the effects of racial preferences and the other author Mr. Stewart
Taylor Jr. teaches at Stanford Law School. The authors are highly qualified to discuss
this article and thus gives these arguments more credibility. Both genres, though
they utilize different methods to make their argument, one uses humor and the
other uses facts and credibility to make their arguments, these images provoke
discussion and open up a topic that needs to be revisited.

References:
Article

Sander, Richard, and Stuart Taylor, Jr. "The Painful Truth About Affirmative Action."
The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/the-painful-truth-aboutaffirmativeaction/263122/>.
Image
Utt, Jamie. "Are White Students Being Disadvantaged by Affirmative Action?"Change
From Within. A
World of Change Starts from Within, 06 June 2012. Web. 07 Feb. 2016